Horton launches campaign to run for Seventh Congressional District seat

Dr. Kyle Horton has launched her campaign to run for a seat in Congress in 2018. (Source: WECT)

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT/AP) -

Kyle Horton has launched her first political campaign nearly 18 months before the 2018 General Election. She has declared herself a candidate for the Democratic nomination in North Carolina’s Seventh Congressional District, running for the seat currently held by second-term Republican Rep. David Rouzer.

“We decided to launch really early both to avoid a primary, and to actually capitalize on all this motivation,” Horton said. “People are extremely concerned about the direction this country is going in right now, so we really felt like we needed to capitalize on the fact that people are volunteering, they’re engaged, they are paying attention to what’s going on in the news, and so we wanted to capitalize on that.”

Horton is a primary care physician living in Kure Beach. She graduated from UNC Wilmington, and started her medical career at Hunter Homes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia. She then went to work in Washington, DC, advocating for veterans’ interests on Capitol Hill. Horton said those experiences, and the recent House vote to replace much of the Affordable Care Act with the GOP-backed American Health Care Act, sparked her to become a candidate for the first time.

“I really fought for two years for what I believe in, that Veterans wrote a blank check to this country and then we penny-pinched them,” she said. “When I was working on the Veterans Suicide Prevention bill, it ended up spending only 22 million over five years. Even with that very small pricetag, still a single U.S. Senator blocked it. So I’ve seen the worst of what Washington gridlock and obstruction can look like, what cruel and heartless politics can look like, and when I saw the vote on the AHCA, saw that was the time I really recognized that this is my moment that I need to run and step up as a candidate, that my experience as a physician, my experience caring for veterans, my experience fighting for jobs and our quality of life through my environmental work really make me uniquely qualified.”

Horton has some experience in the district, serving as the First Vice-Chair of the Seventh Congressional District Democratic Party. She says she plans to concentrate her campaign on the issues of the district, and not focus on the controversies surrounding President Donald Trump.

“I don’t want to run a campaign about Donald Trump,” Horton says. ”I really want to make my campaign about the voters in the Seventh Congressional District and what’s important to them. But, that said, he (President Trump) is historically unpopular, and it’s a simple fact that the incumbent congressman has very closely aligned himself with the policies of the Trump Administration. Even in the case where those policies don’t reflect the majority opinion, where they are giving tax cuts to the super rich at the expense of working and middle class families, he is still closely aligned with the Trump Administration.”

Rouzer, who is from Johnston County, has won his two previous general elections by more than 20 percentage points. Horton is the first candidate in either party to announce candidacy for the 2018 election.

During a stop in Columbus County not far from Fair Bluff — one of the communities hardest hit by the October 2016 storm — Forest was asked about the delay in the state dispersing federal money designed to help Hurricane Matthew victims.

During a stop in Columbus County not far from Fair Bluff — one of the communities hardest hit by the October 2016 storm — Forest was asked about the delay in the state dispersing federal money designed to help Hurricane Matthew victims.

House Speaker Tim Moore has reauthorized a committee to meet regarding funds earmarked to help victims of Hurricane Matthew in areas like Fair Bluff in Columbus County. (Source: WECT)

North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) has reauthorized the state House Select Committee on Disaster Relief to address funding earmarked to help the victims of Hurricane Matthew. Rep. Brenden Jones (R-Columbus) is a co-chair of the committee and represents Fair Bluff, one of the areas hardest hit by the October 2016 storm.

North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) has reauthorized the state House Select Committee on Disaster Relief to address funding earmarked to help the victims of Hurricane Matthew. Rep. Brenden Jones (R-Columbus) is a co-chair of the committee and represents Fair Bluff, one of the areas hardest hit by the October 2016 storm.

Skip Watkins was in the WECT Digital Studio on Friday to talk about Charlotte hosting the 2020 Republican National Convention. (Source: WECT)

Skip Watkins was in the WECT Digital Studio on Friday to talk about Charlotte hosting the 2020 Republican National Convention. (Source: WECT)

Hours after the Republican National Committee unanimously voted to make Charlotte the host city for the 2020 Republican National Convention, New Hanover County Commissioner Skip Watkins said he was happy to hear the news.

Hours after the Republican National Committee unanimously voted to make Charlotte the host city for the 2020 Republican National Convention, New Hanover County Commissioner Skip Watkins said he was happy to hear the news.

The filing period has ended for judicial candidates across North Carolina.

Nearly all Superior and District Court Judges from counties in southeastern North Carolina are running for re-election in 2018. The filing period for judicial offices ended Friday at Noon, with only one current member of the local bench not on the ballot for the November General Election.

Nearly all Superior and District Court Judges from counties in southeastern North Carolina are running for re-election in 2018. The filing period for judicial offices ended Friday at Noon, with only one current member of the local bench not on the ballot for the November General Election.